where were you when you heard dale earnhardt died

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jasn88cubs

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I was 12 sitting at home watching the race

I was a huge rusty fan and didn't like Earnhardt at all. Didn't hate him but wasn't a fan

MY mom was home and watched it to while my dad was at a daytona 500 party

saw the race and when it ended i ended up playing video games or something, i dont know

mom got a call from my uncle who is a huge racing fan syaing earnhardt died

i didnt believe but turned on espn and there it was

dad came home and had no idea and didnt believe us till eh saw it on the news

he started calling his buddies and told them and sai d"he couldn't believe it"

it was shocking for sure and i couldn't believe it
 
I was home watching the race. I knew almost as soon as the wreck happened, it was bad just judging by Sterling Marlin's interview. He was shaken up badly.
 
4 or 5 years old, mom and dad had recently divorced and I was at my dads new girlfriends (now my step moms) house. Never will forget my dads reaction. Remember coming back to my moms that night (living with my grandma and grandpa at the time). Remember my papa hearing it on the news and saying he'd never watch racing again. Don't think I saw another race with him until the Daytona Busch race the following year and seen more races than not since then.


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Sitting at home watching the race with my then 17 yearold son. Neither of us were Earnhardt fans...... but...... when Mike Helton came on and said Dale was dead.... my son broke down and cried. At the time, I never ever thought I would miss a driver as much as I miss him now.......
 
I was nine and with my dad. This sets up an interesting story. My first grade teacher let me watch the Rockingham race the following week during school, because it was the first race after Dale's death.
 
I was watching with my grandpa. He was a big Dale Earnhardt fan. He got me into racing. He had gone to Sunday evening church service before the death was accounced. I went back to his house so I could be there when he got home so I could tell him. He was upset, almost in tears. He literally said "How would Dale want me to act? He'd want us to watch the 1998 Daytona 500". So we did. Over the next few days, he and I watched every classic Dale race he had on tape. The Richmond race with the DW crash, the 1999 Bristol night race, Dales last win and his favorite, Dale's Atlanta win iver Bobby Labonte in 2000. (I was a Labonte fan) Even though he's gone now and I haven't had a VCR in 10 years, I still have those tapes.
 
Bowtie3 said:
I was watching with my grandpa. He was a big Dale Earnhardt fan. He got me into racing. He had gone to Sunday evening church service before the death was accounced. I went back to his house so I could be there when he got home so I could tell him. He was upset, almost in tears. He literally said "How would Dale want me to act? He'd want us to watch the 1998 Daytona 500". So we did. Over the next few days, he and I watched every classic Dale race he had on tape. The Richmond race with the DW crash, the 1999 Bristol night race, Dales last win and his favorite, Dale's Atlanta win iver Bobby Labonte in 2000. (I was a Labonte fan) Even though he's gone now and I haven't had a VCR in 10 years, I still have those tapes.
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is your grandpa john wayne?
 
I watched it happen. I have it on VHS, but I never watched it again.
I think I remember Schrader flipping out when he got over to Dale's car.
 
Not sure but probably at the same place I watched the race.
 
BobbyFord said:
I watched it happen. I have it on VHS, but I never watched it again.
I think I remember Schrader flipping out when he got over to Dale's car.
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yep i remember that to and his post race interview

should have known something serious was up
 
I was 5 watching with my parents but I don't remember anything past his wreck, the next NASCAR related memory I have after that is Harvick's win 3 weeks later.
 
Was at home, and my dad saw it on Nascar.com and called me in there to the living room to tell me. :( we then watched it on ESPN. Was a very sad night. I didn't get to see the race as I was at Church and got home after it was over so I didn't see the wreck live.
 
We watched the race and drove down to Cocoa Beach. During the drive we heard the news and were in disbelief. Even worse was when Kulwicki died. I got a phone call early the next morning telling me what happened. It was April 1 and I thought it was some kind of sick April Fools Joke. It is odd how this stuff sticks with you years later.
 
Was watching it with my dad at his house. I remember we both thought Tony Stewart would be badly hurt after his flip earlier in the race, and we really didn't think much of Earnhardt's wreck when it happened. Didn't take long to figure out something had gone horribly wrong though.
 
Watched it at my Bros house I was 14. after the race we went snowmobiling and during that ride I kept hearing a voice say to me he's dead. We got back to the house and we saw Heltons announcement.
 
Unfortunately I was in the Keech tower towards turn 1 with my father and his friend. I was 14.
 
Watching at my dad's house who was an Earnhardt fan - frustrated after the wreck we turned off the race until a family member called and had us turn the coverage back on.

Mike Helton's comments are still chilling. As Marty Smith said...."those words were impossible" and they really were.
 
Was upstairs in my room finishing up my homework. Dad was flipping channels and they had Helton's comments on MSNBC so he called me down. Couldn't believe it.
 
Two days in my life where I remember the entire day.

September 11, 2001
February 18, 2001

I watched the race in the bar of the pizza shop I was working at. I was a delivery driver who got called in that day. My boss said he wouldn't take any orders for deliveries until after the race was over. As soon as the checkered flag flew, I went to work. Later that evening my boss said my bro in law called and said he died. I didn't believe him until I heard it on the radio while out on a delivery. I had to pull the car over for a few minutes. I was in shock.
 
What brought this to mind?

I was in the drive-up line at the Rush's in West Columbia, SC. (Rush's is a local fast food burger and chicken chain.) I recall the post-race coverage had ended. I hadn't yet changed away from the country station I ignore the other six days of the week, when they broke back in with the news.
 
I was at sea. I didn't find out for a couple of days.
 
utvol0427 said:
Schrader's reaction and the ambulance seemingly crawling toward the hospital told the story.
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Yep. I had a really bad feeling after the race. When Helton made the announcement, I was speechless. I couldn't believe it.

Nascar didn't feel right for a while after that.
 
My father and I had watched the race at a friend of his house. Only race we had ever not watched at home. On the drive home we were both saying we hope dale wasn't hurt too bad as the previous 2 seasons he'd seemed to have a resurgence, especially the year before finishing 2nd in points. We thought #8 was a real possibility. We were happy for Waltrip though, "imagine all those years and you finally break through by winning the 500".
Got home and later that night my dad was out. was watching Tv in my room, a TV Channel here in Canada called The Score at the time that is ALL highlight etc. Ticker at the bottom was running stating "Dale Earnhardt in serious Condition following accident at Daytona 500" i told my mom wha they were saying. 10 mins later "Dale Earnhardt Dies Following Injuries sustained at today's Daytona 500"
Never forget it.
Didnt know what to tell my dad when he got home. I couldnt get the words out. My mom saw me and told dad "Dale Earnhardt is gone"
 
I was home alone watching the race when it happened. When it was announced that Dale was gone, all I could think of was my oldest brother. I knew this would hit him hard.
 
I was 15, playing video games in my room and listening to the radio. They broke in with the news that he had died. I couldn't believe it. I went down and told my mom, and she cried. 2001 has some of the clearest, bad memories of my childhood with that and 9/11.

Three weeks later was a real catharsis for us at the Atlanta race. Holding up 3 fingers on lap 3 and watching Harvick beat Gordon the same way Dale had beaten Labonte the year before was one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had.
 
One of the few races that I didn't watch in front of my on TV. We went to a Daytona 500 party at a friends house that year. Yeah, they had those back then. Anyone and everyone I knew at the time watched NASCAR. DE was my driver back then. Had been since his early days in the sport. Seeing the wreck that day, I/we felt there was really nothing out of the ordinary. I've seen far worse before and since that drivers have walked away from. Not really thinking that it was anything all that serious, we all celebrated the DEI win. It became clear though soon after the checkered flag flew that it was far more serious than it first appeared. The interview with Schrader right after exiting the Infield Care Center and then seeing his interaction with MW in Victory Lane clued us in on it being something more.

We left the party still not knowing the outcome. At some point on the way home the news came over the radio. Unbelievable is the only way that I can describe it. I felt then and probably somewhat to this day that I'd lost a member of my own family. As silly as that sounds it's the way it is. I don't know if I was just so heavily invested in the sport on a daily basis or if I was just that big of a fan of his. Whatever it was, I can't really describe it. I've lived through the passing of many drivers over the years but had never felt that way before.

As much as I still continue to follow the sport, I'm nowhere near the avid fan that I once was. I can only guess that day is the reason why.
 
I watched the race that day. I watched all the post race interviews and just knew something was wrong and that Dale was in trouble. I figured he would be out for a few days but never thought he would have passed away. After the race I went to workout at the gym and when I came out afterward I heard it on the radio. The popular song at the time was Kid Rock's "Only God Knows Why" and they played it right after they announced his death on the radio. Now everytime I hear that song, I think of Dale.
 
I was home watching the race. I knew it was serious when Schrader went to the window of the 3 and then frantically motioned to the rescue crew. Kenny's wife was a nurse at the time, so when I saw him so stricken I knew it was bad. And when the ambulance just crawled toward the hospital instead of
racing there................

Later, when the pictures of the inside of the car were put out online, the amount of blood spattered in the car gave some indication of what Kenny had seen.

I spent 2 hours crying on the phone with my girlfriend who was at the race, trying to console her.
She had been sitting very close to Turn 4 and had a good view of the wreck and the frantic movements of the rescue crew.
 
I was at home and I knew NASCAR would never recover. Ask people at an urban school name one driver, they would say that black car's Dave ealmhurt.
 
Watched the race at home and left right after the checkered to go to a church activity. I never dreamed that wreck would turn out to be so bad; I was glad Waltrip finally won and I was aggravated that Spencer and Earnhardt ended up having such bad days. Then I saw the news on tv when I got home from church.
 
I watched the race. Saw Dale hit the wall no different than a hundred other wall hits. I was in a band then and was running late for a practice. I took off right away. My wife told me Dale was dead when I got home.
 
I actually fell asleep with about 50 laps to go. When I woke up, Helton was making his statement and my dad told me Dale had passed. I was very sad for many months following his death, more so than I was for people who I actually knew that died.
 
At our (then) home in Alexandria, Virginia. My wife and I (then fiance) weren't NASCAR fans by any stretch of the imagination...but, we're both big sports fans, so it wasn't weird for us to be watching a big sporting event. That 500 was the first race she had ever watched, and maybe my 3rd or 4th ever. At the beginning of the race, we both picked drivers for whatever reason we came up with (liked the paint scheme, liked the sponsor, have heard of the driver, etc - we had zero loyalty to anyone or anything). She picked Dale. It was pretty exciting for us (her) as he was near the front coming to the end, but then when he crashed it was more like "Ha! Your driver was so close! Then he crashed! I win!" kinda thing, and we turned the TV off thinking nothing of it. It didn't seem like a "big deal" type crash.

Later that day we heard the news. It stopped us cold. Dale didn't mean anything to me as he did to most of you guys, but it was still very sobering and sad, and I knew enough to know how important he was to the sport, and how much impact it would have on lots of things (people, safety measures, etc). But my wife was totally freaked out. The first race she had ever watched, the first driver she had ever "rooted" for, and he was killed in a crash. To this day, my wife refuses to openly root for anyone. She'll send "good luck" texts to team members/drivers etc that we're friends with before a race. But she'll usually remain quiet until the very end. If one of them wins, then she'll go nuts. But never before the checkered flag waves, and everyone is alive and well.
 
My wife and I were at the Track and saw it happen live, we heard the final outcome over the radio on the way back to Orlando. Was really a sad sad day in Nascar. I was not a fan of his, but, it effected me deeply.
 
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